1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary aspects of the present invention generally relate to an image forming apparatus including an intermediate transfer member on which a toner image is transferred.
2. Description of the Background Art
Related-art image forming apparatuses, such as copiers, facsimile machines, printers, or multifunction printers having at least one of copying, printing, scanning, and facsimile functions, typically form an image on a recording medium according to image data. Thus, for example, a charger uniformly charges a surface of an image bearing member; an optical writer projects a light beam onto the charged surface of the image bearing member to form an electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member according to the image data; a developing device supplies toner to the electrostatic latent image formed on the image bearing member to make the electrostatic latent image visible as a toner image; the toner image is directly transferred from the image bearing member onto a recording medium or is indirectly transferred from the image bearing member onto a recording medium via an intermediate transfer member; a cleaning device then cleans the surface of the image carrier after the toner image is transferred from the image carrier onto the recording medium; finally, a fixing device applies heat and pressure to the recording medium bearing the unfixed toner image to fix the unfixed toner image on the recording medium, thus forming the image on the recording medium.
For producing a color image, a tandem-type color image forming apparatus is well known. In the tandem-type image forming apparatus, a plurality of image bearing members, one for each of the colors, for example, black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, is arranged in tandem, and multiple toner images of a respective single color are formed thereon. The toner images are transferred primarily onto an intermediate transfer belt so that they are superimposed one atop the other, thereby forming a composite color toner image. Subsequently, the composite toner image is transferred secondarily from the intermediate transfer belt to a recording medium.
Generally, the tandem-type image forming apparatus is equipped with a cleaning device to remove residual toner remaining on the intermediate transfer belt after the secondary transfer process. The residual toner to be cleaned by the cleaning device contains different colors of toner. Hence, such toner is not returned to a developing device for re-use, but instead, conveyed to a waste toner bin that stores the waste toner and is replaced when full.
In general, such a waste toner bin is provided to either the cleaning device or a main body of the image forming apparatus. Providing the waste toner bin to the main body of the image forming apparatus is advantageous because the main body of the image forming apparatus can provide more capacity for the waste toner bin, thus extending the product life of the waste toner bin.
Typically, the intermediate transfer belt is detachably attached to the image forming apparatus so that the intermediate transfer belt can be replaced or inspected when reaching the end of its product life. Hence, a cleaning device that is provided to the intermediate transfer belt can be detached from the image forming apparatus together with the intermediate transfer belt when detaching the intermediate transfer belt from the image forming apparatus.
Internally, the cleaning device defines a toner conveyance path through which the toner is conveyed. The toner conveyance path of the cleaning device is connected to a toner conveyance path of the main body of the image forming apparatus, to convey the waste toner to the waste toner bin disposed at the main body of the image forming apparatus. Hence, there is demand for simple yet reliable separation and attachment of the toner conveyance path of the cleaning device relative to the toner conveyance path of the main body of the image forming apparatus.
In view of the above, in related-art image forming apparatuses, the direction of separation/installation of the intermediate transfer belt coincides with the direction of separation/attachment of the toner conveyance path of the cleaning device relative to the toner conveyance path of the main body. Furthermore, the toner conveyance path of the cleaning device connects to the toner conveyance path of the main body substantially at a distal end in the direction of installation of the intermediate transfer belt.
In this configuration, installation of the intermediate transfer belt in the main body of the image forming apparatus connects the toner conveyance path of the cleaning device to the toner conveyance path of the main body, thereby forming easily a waste toner conveyance path and hence improving operability.
There is increasing demand for an image forming apparatus without any protruding portions at sides and the back thereof, thereby providing greater flexibility in installation in an office or the like. In one approach, a known image forming apparatus allows maintenance and replacement of devices to be performed from the front or a proximal end thereof so that even when the image forming apparatus is surrounded by walls, such operation can still be performed from the front.
Although advantageous, in the image forming apparatus in which the toner conveyance path of the cleaning device connects to the toner conveyance path of the main body at the downstream side in the direction of installation of the intermediate transfer belt into the image forming apparatus, the waste toner bin is disposed at the distal end or in the interior of the image forming apparatus, complicating access thereto.
To overcome this difficulty, in order to dispose the waste toner bin at the proximal side in the image forming apparatus, in one approach, the waste toner conveyance path extends horizontally from the back to the front of the image forming apparatus. However, such a configuration generally costs more and requires even more space.
For the reasons described above, it is difficult to improve installation or removal of the intermediate transfer belt while simultaneously achieving flexibility in arrangement of the waste toner conveyance path and the waste toner bin